It sure has been a while since the last time I got to blog. I have been up to a lot but for some reason finding internet was harder than figuring out a way to wake up my row mate on the flight so I could use the restroom. I'll give you a short recap to avoid another extremely lengthy blog though haha.
Cinque Terre:
Absolutely a gorgeous place composed of 5 villages that have been linked together. I did a hike through each of them and made it through the hike in 3.5 hrs. Here's a picture of one of the villages:
One of the streets you pass up will be the via l'amore which is the street of love. Totally covered with padlocks. The story about the locks is that women that were single and looking for love would go on this street and leave a lock. Then when they find their love, they are supposed to return with that person to the street, unlock the padlock, and chuck it into the ocean. =] Cute huh?
This place was amazing and I learned that the reason why all the villages were the same color was because by law they could only use those colors on their houses. The water was crystal clear and as I walked across the hiking trail I swear the water looked like it had gold in it. Probably from the reflection of the sun and rocks. There were great little spots during the trail where you could walk down some steps and chill along the water. Like you're own not-so-private spot that you could climb down to every now and again.
I did happen to meet some locals when I was asking for directions, and I ran into these two dudes named Luca and Diego. They were totally nice and after my hike I met up with them again by coincidence! Here's one of them:
They were so cool and I got to practice my Italian with them while they practiced their English with me. They were two older dudes around like 40 that lived like 25 year olds. They taught me a lot about Italy and had me over for dinner for two nights. I met their parents, their neighbors, and learned that all they had to do to get wine was go ask their neighbors for some haha. It's amazing how they could just go to their buddy's winery and come back with bottles of wine. They do live a highly relaxing life. The next day they showed me this little place called Portovenere which was equally if not more beautiful than the other cities that I saw in cinque terre. Just full of breathtaking views and a bunch of people soaking up the sun along this castle like church. I basically couldn't have asked for a better time. Meeting locals and seeing how they live. It was awesome being able to speak to them all and be one of them. =]
Next up! Bologna:
Bologna was yet another beautiful city that was much easier to navigate in than in Rome. It was also a lot more modern. Unfortunately the hotel I stayed at was quite far from the city center. Nonetheless I made the best of things and found my way by asking for help from bus drivers =]. The city itself was cool and the countryside was lovely.
This city wasn't one of my favorites but that could just be because I was traveling alone and finished exploring the city in like a day. haha. There were some things I didn't get to see like the Ducati and Lamborghini factory. What I did like was finding little secret spots. It was like going on a treasure hunt! One for example was finding the Rhine river that flows under the city. I found it!
Like many other cities, they had a lot of graffiti. It was a bummer seeing it on monuments but there were fun ones like these:
I wanted to visit a family of a friend that I went to school with. Unfortunately there was a gate that didn't let me get to their home. Bummer. Either way I had a good time and found a lot of cool parks to relax at while people watching =]. A good ole' italian past time!
Roma:
I actually ended up getting to Rome a day earlier and it was really nice being back home. I had two days to kill before picking up Hai at the airport. I ended up giving tours to a few people. I figured I should practice before Hai comes haha. I think my fastest time was 5 hours to give someone a tour of the entire city minus two squares. =] Pretty good huh? I did get to see a few things that I had never seen before like the Capuchin crypt church which was made of 4000 bodies of friars... creepy!!! I also saw the spanish steps at night which is booming at that time!
I soon found out that no matter how much I practiced, there is just way too much to fully experience in only 2 days. I just had to cross my fingers and do my best to show Hai Dizzle Dao all I could including all the wonderful favorite food places I had listed in my noggin =]. I think I'll make a separate blog for the experience Hai and I had.
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